Turkey is keen to not only boost bilateral trade
with India, its national carrier also wants permission to operate more flights
to various destinations here, a senior Turkish Government official said here
late on Wednesday.
Speaking to newspersons, Turkish Ambassador
Burak Akcapar said although the two countries had initiated a joint study to
promote trade in February 2011, it needs to be signed and negotiations started
to give a further boost to trade.
“We believe that with the current set-up, trade
will not be able to flourish more than what it is. This year, there is already
a little bit of slowdown. Therefore, we need to step up in formulating a new
framework that promotes two-way trade exchanges.
At present, the Turkish market is more
liberalised than India. This creates a situation in which out of the $7-billion
Turkey-India trade, only $756 million is Turkey’s exports to India, the Envoy
said.
The Ambassador said a number of issues were
holding back trade volumes from growing. “There is a limit on how many marbles
and precious stones can be exported to India. We could also export more fresh
fruits that would help bring down prices in India. There is also an issue with
Turkey’s exports of hazelnuts. The list is very long,” he said.
More flights
The Envoy felt that allowing Turkish Airlines to
operate more flights to India would also help the country receive more foreign
tourists.
At the moment, Turkish Airlines operates daily
flights from Mumbai and Delhi and is keen to operate to six cities, including
Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Amritsar and Kolkata.
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